[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Autumn 2008 first impressions: ef - a Tale of Melodies, Tytania, Chaos;Head
I wouldn’t wish illness on anyone but several days off work has allowed me to recharge my batteries a bit (despite living off canned soup and green tea for four days straight) and has done wonders for tackling my backlog. My two-episode rule still stands, which is a bit of a limitation: the subbers pull out all the stops to get the opening eps out but take more time over the second ones because most people make their minds up after the first week.
I’ve been off-colour lately but Hidamari Sketch always makes things brighter
Since animu is infinitely more interesting than hearing about my immune and digestive systems going into temporary EPIC FAIL I give you ef-a Tale of Melodies, Tytania and Chaos;Head.
Ef-a Tale of Melodies
I was expecting collective aneurisms over the artiness and pretentiousness but as it turns out, the haters are wisely staying away while we ef-lovers who were enamoured with the idiosyncracies and kaleidoscopic visuals are coming back for the second season. In terms of artwork and animation it’s a smooth continuation and best of all Tenmon’s soundtrack is, once again, wonderful. The score effortlessly slips from plaintive violin to playful synthpop and back again; I’ll inevitably be paying close attention to his contribution (Mr Shinkai gave me the impression that it is indeed one solo songwriter) what with music being the main motif as memories were last time around.
How I’ve missed this sort of sight. The talk of a real and fake city might be a red herring, or monumentally important; I’m not yet sure which
In terms of character dynamics and narrative structure, there’s a bit of a shake-up happening here: there are one or two flashback segments that require a second viewing for me to get a handle on what’s happening and when. The upshot of all this reveals how Himura - the older guy who was often found alone in the church - has an old flame in the form of Yuuko but was also close to his classmate Nagi (who may be related to the first season’s character Hiro). Meanwhile Kuze, the next-door neighbour of the first season’s protagonist Renji, has old issues awoken after meeting Renji’s cousin Mizuki.
The power of music
I like the way in which the familiar characters reappear because it gives a great feeling of continuity and connected-ness, plus the idea of making two of the older characters take centre stage is refreshing. The age gap between Kuze and Mizuki makes me wish for their relationship to be of the more platonic variety though, which would set up a nice situation whereby his love of music and her outgoing personality have a positive effect on one another without being creepy. I must admit though that after just two episodes the flashbacks, symbolism and cryptic dialogue mean that the story doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Since I feel like I’m on familiar territory here, I’ll continue to watch this with the assumption that it will unfold beautifully later on.
Status: Keeper
Tytania
From the author and director of Legend of the Galactic Heroes comes another space-opera that plays out like the Napoleonic wars or the battle against the Spanish Armada, except in space. It therefore features a seemingly invincible clan of galactic conquerers, stoic men in outrageous outfits, enormous formations of huge-ass spaceships armed with scores of pretty-looking lasers and gallons of theatrically-poured Manly Tea. IKnight loves it and I can’t say I blame him.
To a fellow limey and animeblogging comrade: this one’s for you
A collaboration between Yoshiki Tanaka’s pen and Noboru Ishigura’s directorial hand has yielded predictable but satisfying results: it’s galactic warfare as SERIOUS BUSINESS with awe-inspiring set-piece battles and stuffy, stiff-as-a-board dialogue. For excitement I’ll have to look elsewhere but the calculated mechinations of the Tytania dynasty and cocky upstart commander who dares face up to them certainly delivers on an intellectual level.
Huge-ass spaceship alert
The overwhelming bombast and arrogance of Tytania will I’m sure be their downfall - they are an unstoppable force but utterly inflexible and resort to blaming each other when things go wrong. I’ll be following this one because of the ridiculous theatrics and cool-looking spaceships…plus it will be interesting to see one renegade foil their plans to seize control of every tea plantation in the Galaxy.
Status: keeper
Chaos; Head
I was really sceptical of this on the first ep, despite the synopsis promising good things. The Welcome to the NHK! comparisons are apt, as are the Kon-inspired weirdness but I’m also getting a bit of a Lain vibe in that nobody around the central character may be who they appear to be. The production values are solid, the idea’s fascinating and keeps me guessing but it still left me with mixed feelings.
Try to LURK MOAR at school, pal. Ah, the unreliable point-of-view approach to storytelling at work
Firstly, the central character is an ass. NHK’s Satou was a likeable loser but Takumi doesn’t exactly behave kindly towards the few people who still have the patience to be close to him, which makes me feel a bit detached from what’s happening to him. Fortunately this isn’t such an issue in the second episode, since I think he has just cause for being paranoid and withdrawn. I do however dig the negative way in which the series portrays a self-centred hikikomori and his shameful life of playing computer games all day and living in a converted shipping container; it has the potential to take the story off at that social commentary angle as well as the murder-mystery one.
Not a Nice Boat in sight: it’s always the quiet ones, isn’t it?
The mood lurches between fluffy high-school otaku fodder and all-out horror: pink haired bishoujos one minute, then poor chumps pinned to walls with knives the next (or both in the same scene). The talk of brutal serial killings, a man found with a foetus inside him in Shibuya (LOL! “Where’s it going to gestate? Are you going to keep it in a box?”), and the constant questioning of what’s real and what’s the protagonists’ delusion were all fun…as long as the high school slapstick isn’t overplayed. One to keep an eye on, because it hasn’t completely convinced me yet.
Status: watching for now
Posted on October 22nd, 2008 @ 2:10 am
While an ass like me is very likely to dismiss ef’s visuals as pretentious, I have no qualms about it being uh… different since it did deliver a decent story during its first season. You learn how to walk before attempting to fly, that is all I expect.
I hope you get better!
The Sojourners last blog post..Junjou Romantica 2: #01
Posted on October 22nd, 2008 @ 2:15 am
I’m keeping Tytania for sure… watching 7 shows all at once, this is a first for me. I only followed Code Geass R2 and Macross Frontier last season (then Xam’d, Kamen no Maid Guy, then Detroit Metal City). I’ve been meaning to watch LOGH all year but so many shows both old and new compete with ever-dwindling viewing time.
Posted on October 22nd, 2008 @ 5:26 am
For me the problem with Ef has always been the visuals. Oh, I liked them most of the time, but they often distracted, and in one scene became excruciating. So I can barely remember anything about the first series’ character relationships and am pretty much starting from scratch. Touches like the guy’s wardrobe of woman’s clothes helps somewhat. (”Oh, THAT guy!”)
I thought Chaos;Head improved in ep2. Maybe since we finally get an idea of what’s going on. The “hero” might not come off as well as Satou in NHK because Satou’s personal issues were the focal point, where in C;H there’s a whole other story to tell.
Posted on October 22nd, 2008 @ 8:35 am
What’s wrong, don’t like forbidden love? Forbidden love is always interesting, IMO.
I don’t think their age gap is really that huge, though. I think she’s 17 or 18 and he’s mid-to-late 20s. That’s not that bad.
Posted on October 22nd, 2008 @ 10:48 am
You don’t know how much of an effort it is to restrain myself (’Remember when anime was simple? Remember when storytelling was about more important things than romance?’) but I’m glad to hear that effort has created the right impression.
And yes, Tytania. Can’t wait for the ‘Gotta-Sip’Em-All’ Galaxy Tea Tour. I like how they still have shoe-shining waifs in a space-going civilisation.
IKnights last blog post..Condensed Review: Soukou no Strain
Posted on October 22nd, 2008 @ 11:45 am
MARVELOUS!
Kairu Ishimarus last blog post..Exams ftw
Posted on October 22nd, 2008 @ 5:40 pm
Oh my, I hope you’ll get better soon! Sometimes I wish I were sick or so myself to tackle my huge backlog, heh.
As for anime, I haven’t picked up anything interesting yet, but I am trying to watch as much as I can - and I have not gotten around to watch ef yet.
Posted on October 22nd, 2008 @ 7:23 pm
I’m still not sure about ef - a tale of melodies… I know the original series wasn’t exactly renowned for its immediacy, but I’m sure I remember feeling comfortable with what was going on a lot earlier than I have with this series (i.e. I’m not at all yet).
Chaos;Head on the other hand I’ve really enjoyed - I can understand that Takumi can (and will) grate on some people, but considering his overall personality I think it works well, and I’m sure we’re supposed to not particularly like him at this juncture. It’s an interesting concept well delivered so far to my mind.
Hannerss last blog post..Shikabane Hime: Aka - Episode 3
Posted on October 23rd, 2008 @ 6:31 pm
@The Sojourner: maybe ef is pretentious, but it’s different and it looks pretty. That alone is enough for now! I’m much better now, thanks!
@ghostlightning: I’ve put LotGH on hold while I watch Tytania, but like you I already have Xam’d and DMC among others on the go too. You clearly have good taste! ^_^
@Peter S: I find the character designs of ef to be offputting, but they’re probably just being faithful to the visual novels. As for Chaos;Head, it did improve with the second ep. It’s only twelve in length so I may well see it through to completion.
@Sorrow-kun: when you put it like that, I guess it isn’t so bad. I thought Kuze was in his 30s for some reason!
@IKnight: it’s good to see that wherever you are in the universe, presentation is still important enough to warrant a street urchin in every space port to ensure your shoes are adequately polished. I look forward to more epic tea fetishism in future episodes…the Holy Empire of Britannia has nothing on these guys.
@Kairu Ishimaru: indeed. ^_^
@Sasa: it would have been a relaxing and more productive time off if I’d been well enough to actually get things done but eh. It was just a bug so I was back to work this week. I recommend you check out Mouryou no Hako and perhaps Kuroshitsuji: they might actually pull off the gothic aesthetic at last (reviewage to follow). DMC is still shockingly awesome…or awesomely shocking. Or both.
@Hanners: I’m still running on faith with ef. The character interactions are a bit different but it looks so pretty! Chaos;Head could be a grower - I want more brutal murders and less moe!
Posted on October 26th, 2008 @ 7:51 am
IKnight: But do you remember love?
Hey, c’mon, he’s a sex maniac, she’s a lesbian (well, what passes for one, at any rate), I guess they deserve each other! No? Well, alright.
What is “pretentious” anyway? If I can understand ef perfectly fine, does that make those who sling the word around doubly pretentious? Wouldn’t a better gauge for pretentiousness be symbolism for its own sake rather than symbolism void of any inherent meaning?
Posted on October 26th, 2008 @ 1:17 pm
@Owen S: pretention can be one of two things. It can be something trying to be cleverer than it is *cough*Innocence*cough* or it can be used as an ‘emergency exit’ term in the same way as ‘trainwreck’ for people who can’t be arsed to figure things out!
The symbolism in A Tale of Melodies is fairly accessible (even if the story is taking its time in sorting itself out) although in fairness I’m sure some still find the aesthetic offputting.
Posted on October 27th, 2008 @ 3:11 pm
@Martin: As you can imagine, I have picked up a few series by now, including ef, Kuroshitsuji, Kyou no 5 no 2 (I used to call the manga my favourite of all and thus have to be faithful to it, no matter how bad the anime turns out to be), Earl and Fairy (guilty pleasure), Kannagi, Michiko to Hatchin, Nodame Cantabile 2, and Toradora. It’s pretty sure that I will be continuing watching these, so I doubt I’ll pick up anything else yet. Oh, I also have seen the first episodes Mouryou no Haku, Shikabahime Aka and Skip Beat, but I probably won’t continue those.
I am not sure about Chaos;Head - I looked into it for a bit and disliked the character design so far. Perhaps I should give it another chance.
Well, I am looking forward to your reviews on the goth series! Oh, and D(etroit) M(oe) C(ity) is love XD
Sasas last blog post..The Vector Factor: A Tale Of Two Taiga’s
Posted on October 27th, 2008 @ 11:33 pm
@Sasa: Shikabane Hime is licenced now but available for streaming in the US only, so the dog’s in the manger in that sense (in that I can’t watch it, legally or otherwise, for some time yet. Grr). TBH though, I have loads of others to watch anyway. The Gothic Review is coming up tomorrow - the release schedule of the subbers made it turn out that way, but maybe I’m just making up for the fact that I can’t make it to the Whitby fest this year…
Posted on October 30th, 2008 @ 2:51 am
I’ve been diligently following ef since it started, being the fan that I am, and I’m also keeping my eye on Chaos;Head if only for the suspenseful conclusion to every episode. The harem lead (though he isn’t much of a harem lead at all in this case) may not be particularly respectable, but I find the story surrounding him to be intriguing enough to hold my attention.
ETERNALs last blog post..ef - a tale of melodies [ep 3]